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02/03/2009: "#138:Deep Thoughts About The 21st Century Viking Link List, V 1.0"

Music: Greyboy All-Stars
Mood: accomplished

After spending most of last night hunting down all of the links and compiling a link list, spending this morning double checking the links and posting the list, and having just finishing saving backup HTML copies of each story, I feel pretty awesome. The first 21st Century Viking column was published on Halloween 2008 and I have posted one nearly every week since. In an odd bit of disassociation, I wrote them, submitted them to my awesome editor at the Ballard News-Tribune and then started work on the next one. It did not occur to me until recently to make sure I had links and backup HTML files for all of them, and I procrastinated about doing it until last night. The process of creating this list has not only been an important step in the process of creating my writing portfolio but it made me confront how much work I have done and the fact that this work is getting out there.

It was a good thing I made the list now because despite my best efforts at fishing the internet, I could not find the links for two of the columns so far. On the bright side, in the process of finding the other links that I had lost track of, I discovered that my columns had been linked to by lots of other sites. The 21st Century Viking is being read. Seeing proof of this is such a great feeling. The ones that seem to get the most links are the ones about local transportation policy and the one I wrote about Fisherman's Terminal. As a result of the Fisherman's Terminal article in particular, I have been met a lot of interesting people and have a lot of interesting ideas for future articles. In addition, writing the online column has also led to writing one freelance article so far and will hopefully lead to more in the future. It has been a great experience working for the Ballard News-Tribune. Writing for a newspaper that has been around for over 100 years definitely gets more people to read your writing. This online column is just the beginning of a long writing career. Stay tuned to the athenaverse for more exciting updates!